Drumbeat: May 23, 2012
Feds lay out plans for new blowout preventer mandates
Obama administration officials today outlined their plans for new regulations designed to boost the reliability and power of emergency equipment used as a last line of defense against surging oil an...
Drumbeat: May 19, 2012
The age of extreme oil: ‘This used to be a forest?'
Over the course of three days spent visiting reserves, band offices and the vast sand dunes left behind by the bitumen-scrubbers surrounding Fort McMurray, the Achuar confronted a reality that may o...
Drumbeat: May 18, 2012
David Strahan - Dump the pump: could peak oil be voluntary?
People have fretted about when the world’s oil will start to run out ever since M. King Hubbert came up with the idea of “peak oil” back in the 1950s. The American geologist, who worked ...
Drumbeat: May 16, 2012
U.S. energy independence is no longer just a pipe dream
Every president since Richard Nixon has called for the U.S. to wean itself from needing oil from unstable or unsavory countries. The nation's new-found energy riches are likely to bring that ambit...
Drumbeat: May 14, 2012
Peak oil debate is over, say experts
THE debate about peak oil is over and the world has used just a fraction of the petroleum it will be possible to extract, an expert believes.
Speaking at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Associat...
Drumbeat: May 12, 2012
WSJ: 'Undisclosed' Chesapeake debt looms
A US report contends that the embattled Chesapeake Energy has “previously unreported liabilities” summing to $1.4 billion resulting from a programme that allowed it to exchange future oil and gas production ...
Drumbeat: May 11, 2012
Scientists urge action on world's biggest problems
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists from 15 countries are calling for a better political response to the provision of water and energy to meet the challenge of feeding a world of 9 billion people within 30 y...
Drumbeat: May 9, 2012
Smart-Meter Defiance Slows $29 Billion U.S. Grid Upgrade
A growing consumer backlash against new wireless digital technology for measuring power usage is slowing U.S. utilities’ $29 billion effort to upgrade their networks.
States including Californ...
Drumbeat: May 7, 2012
What Is the Limiting Factor?
In yesteryear’s empty world capital was the limiting factor in economic growth. But we now live in a full world.
Consider: What limits the annual fish catch — fishing boats (capital) or remaining fish in the sea (natur...
Drumbeat: May 5, 2012
Fuel Policies Bedevil Asia as Price Increases Hurt Poor: Economy
For K. Indrani, who cleans homes in Colombo to support her invalid husband and 16-year-old daughter, living on the 600 rupees ($4.70) she earns a day just got harder because the Sri Lanka...
Drumbeat: May 4, 2012
Brazil Sending More Troops to Guard Amazon Borders
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil is deploying more than 8,500 troops to the far reaches of the Amazon rain forest this month in an operation aimed at cracking down on drug smuggling, gold mining and illegal d...
Drumbeat: May 2, 2012
Falling natural gas prices hit states' pocketbooks
Energy-producing states are bracing for lower tax revenue from the plummeting price of natural gas, which is just above half of what some states forecast when they put together budgets for 2013 and bey...
